Sleeve notes

Anyone even vaguely interested in record collecting will know the importance of condition. The Goldmine methodology regards a Very Good condition record as being worth just 25% of one that's Near Mint, and Good condition drops that to 10-15%.

Sleeves are a factor in this. "Someone might have written on it or stamped a price tag on it" it states for Very Good, whereas "a Good to VG– cover has ring wear to the point of distraction, has seam splits obvious on sight and may have even heavier writing".

Writing may on occasion, though, make up for its value-decreasing impact in other ways. It can reveal a bit of that record's history. I note I posted about the writing on the inner sleeve of my copy of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd back in 2016 but it was brought back into sharp focus following the passing of Peter Tork earlier this week. 

Whoever originally owned my copy of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd must be particularly sad today. #petertork pic.twitter.com/A5TkedZAxj

— Darryl Wilks (@dgwilks) February 21, 2019

Curiously three other Monkees LPs I own carry the name and address of a past owner (Cheryl Croker of Bridgwater), along with, I suspect, the date they bought them and, in two cases, they also went to the bother of noting who took the lead vocal on each track. 

I have a Kinks album once owned by Annita Bennett and two (by the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds) from the collection of Sylvie Carpos of St Leonards. Whereas on the one hand I could begrudge Sylvie for not looking after her records particularly well (the Stones LP would fetch around £75 if VG; I'd be lucky to make my pound back on Sylvie's copy), I can appreciate the fact that she clearly enjoyed them. 


One I passed up on (not sure why) featured a critique of some of Aretha Franklin's back catalogue:

Aretha's end of term report. Must try harder. pic.twitter.com/6nOq5cD0i4

— Darryl Wilks (@dgwilks) January 23, 2016

Surprisingly I haven't found any notes or letters; the nearest I've had are the below in a music book. I'll just have to keep on looking.

Like I said... here are a couple of notes I just found inside a book from a charity shop. #haveapintonme pic.twitter.com/g92GL2io4a

— Darryl Wilks (@dgwilks) January 21, 2017

MELODY MAKER November 4 1978

MELODY MAKER
November 4 1978
Cover: Keith Richards
Lead album review: 'Dub Housing', Pere Ubu
Lead live review: The Clash
Single of the week: 'Nothing New', Bethnal

The chances are that any TV show setting itself at the tail-end of 1978 would be using punk/new-wave music and imagery to help set its scenes, with maybe some disco elements thrown in for good measure. One look at the front of this issue of Melody Maker paints a very different picture, featuring as it does Keith Richards, Rod Stewart and Mike Oldfield. The Clash & Third World get a look in next to a piece referred to as 'Kraftwerk The Movie'. No such film exists as far as I know but instead ties to an article written in the style of a film script. 

The lead piece on Keef relates to him taking to the stage in New York after his trial following his legendary drugs bust in Canada, which ultimately triggered him finally kicking heroin. I used to have a poster of photos of Keef from 1962 through to around 1990 and it always seemed to be that his appearance changed significantly around this time; it was almost as if the heroin had been slowing down his ageing process. There's a gallery here where you can judge for yourself. 

Richards has also claimed that he never had a cold during his heroin years, and that governments knew full well it was the cure for the common cold but didn't want to admit it. It can be assumed then that Eddie & The Hot Rods weren't users as p3 reveals they were cancelling a short run of Scottish dates as various members of the band had flu. 

I was pleased to see an ad for Our Price inside the front cover, having worked there over a couple of stints a decade or so later. I was there when they were a fully-fledged national chain and opened their 300th store; in November 1978 they had 10, all with 01 telephone numbers. Alongside a Top 60 rundown ('Grease' at #1), the ad prominently features the Fabulous Poodles. From flicking through this pile of issues they, along with several other bands I'm not familiar with, crop up quite a lot although my route to them was via seeing their singer (Tony de Meur when he was a Poodle; Ronnie Golden when I saw him; his website reveals more on his various personas) provide the musical backing for 'Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen' (downloadable here).

Johnny Rotten may have worn a customised 'I Hate Pink Floyd' t-shirt but Melody Maker were happy to give keyboardist Rick Wright a platform to discuss his recent solo album while also dropping hints about a new project Floyd were about to start work on: "I can't say what it is .... it's Roger's baby, his thing ....it is a very strong idea .... a very involved thing and we're doing a film as well. It's a film based on the idea of the music that Roger has written for the album". The elongated recording process of the resulting album, The Wall, would see Wright leave the band albeit remaining as a session musician for the record and as a hired hand on the subsequent tour.

Paul Weller reviews the singles, name-dropping that he's a "personal friend of the band" before saying that Blondie's 'Hanging On the Telephone' just "doesn't do a lot for me". That's certainly not the only new release he dismisses, but the fact that he says on three occasions that he prefers the b-side shows he was pretty thorough. 

His appearance in the office doesn't prevent All Mod Cons from getting almost as good a kicking as the man who was down in the tube station at midnight; "If Paul Weller were to be a little less enthusiastic, a little less concerned with churning out singles like a bottle factory, and a little more selective in his approach, The Jam would not be in danger of becoming tiresome".

All the way through to its merger into the NME, Melody Maker was the go-to magazine for musicians wanted ads. Assorted tales exist of careers that owe their existence to those pages. Given he was born a few weeks after the ad to the right was placed, it's a fair guess that Mike Skinner didn't take almost a quarter of a century to go from a manager-less hopeful 'ready to roll' to the man behind Original Pirate Material. Whether Iver's Sledgehammer found themselves a vocalist, or Fanni from the Stillettos took any worthwhile calls from drummers may never be known. At a different level, a Mr Luigi was seeking a synth player to accompany a drummer on Friday & Saturday evenings, from nine until one pm in an Italian restaurant. Given that reads to me as a 16 hour shift I'm hoping the money was extremely good.

But my favourite ad has to be this one. I'm not entirely convinced this would be acceptable under current-day equal opportunities legislation. Is the 'warning' paragraph a description of their predecessor? Though it should be noted that to be (r)ejected you'd have to be all of those things and it's a pretty niche list. So if you're still determined you know what to do.

My head is going round in circles ...

It's been easy for me to avoid getting caught up in Record Store Day. Without a dedicated independent record shop in Cambridge it's not really been on my radar. Heffers, predominantly a bookshop, has maintained a small offering but for 2015 they have been joined by two vinyl-only retailers in the city - Relevant and Lost In Vinyl. I can cycle (this is Cambridge after all) to the former in under 5 minutes and so I took more interest in this year's releases than ever before.

Thankfully there wasn't too much on the list that appealed and so I wasn't tempted to join the queues that reportedly started forming outside Relevant at 4.15am. Sure, I could see some good titles on there - some that I already had (Otis Blue; L.A.M.F; Roger The Engineer; Don't Stand Me Down), some that I could see the appeal of should you be so inclined (the Creation Artifact boxed set; and the album that went on to top that week's vinyl-only chart, The Holy Bible) but there was only one title on the list of 550 exclusive products that truly caught my eye: Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces, predominantly due to the fact that it came with the circular sleeve.

Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake - Record Store Day 2015

This is something I've kept half-an-eye out for a while and I wasn't going to get an original copy on the cheap. Buoyed by the fact that I'd just picked up some bargains in local charity shops (amongst them Bowie's Young Americans; Madonna's Immaculate Collection; a few Nancy Sinatra singles and a selection of new wave 7-inches such as Jilted John and Rock Lobster) I felt I could justify picking it up.

In doing so I was reminded that my brother had this, and if I recall correctly had bought it at Tower Records somewhere around 1985. Which in itself surprised me - that far after its release they were still producing the, presumably expensive, circular sleeve? Checking on Discogs I can see a 1980 reissue and expect it was that, but bear in mind this isn't something that was solely released as a tie-in to a one-day event. It was released in that sleeve as someone presumably decided it should be available again rather than just re-issuing the rather unsatisfactory square sleeve with the circular image.

On further reflection and again in the mid-80s, I bought The White Album in my local Our Price and it came with the inserts. A few years later I was on the other side of the counter in that exact same shop in my first full-time job; vinyl sales were tailing off and we had a gradually dwindling range but I can confirm that The White Album still came with the inserts as late as 1990. Maybe EMI over-printed back in 1968. I can't say the same for Sgt Pepper, and although we did still stock New Order's Blue Monday 12" it was no longer being produced with the die-cut sleeve. I don't recall Their Satanic Majesties Request being stocked but if it was I'm certain it would have been in a similar sleeve to the copy I picked up cheaply around four years ago.

The Cream of the crop

Manuel and the Music of the Mountains. Geoff Love and his Orchestra. So far so typical. Abba's Greatest Hits. Don't really need it, but go on then. Saturday Night Fever - maybe. Ah, it's only record one. Pop that back. The Seekers, Leo Sayer, Peters & Lee, Five Live Yardbirds,

Harry Secombe ... What? Hang on. Five Live Yardbirds? That was unexpected. Herb Alpert. More Leo Sayer. A Now! compilation, again with one LP missing. Back to business as usual. The Rolling Stones No.2. Fresh Cream. We're onto something here! Not wishing to sound greedy but sadly that was as good as it got. The Stones LP has a heavy scuff across most of side 2 (I could feel it through the cleaning cloth) and the laminate is coming off the sleeve but for a quid? Bargain. And thanks to Sylvia Carpos of St Leonards-on-Sea, who was a past owner of at least two of these.

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request

The Rolling Stones
Their Satanic Majesties Request
London/Abkco records 844 470-1
1986 re-issue with gatefold sleeve

£3.65 (+£1.50 p&p)
Filed between: Redd Kross 'Teen Babes From Monsanto’ and The Rolling Stones ‘Tattoo You’.


I’ve always had a soft spot for this (seriously flawed) album. According to biographies the band themselves don’t rate it, and it’s largely regarded as a poor attempt to ape ‘Sgt Pepper’. But in ‘Citadel’, ‘2,000 Light Years From Home’ and especially ‘She’s A Rainbow’, 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' is more than just a curio pre-dating the classic Stones period that kicked off with ‘Beggars Banquet’.

Incidentally I’m not a huge fan of ‘Sgt Pepper’ – too many of McCartney’s irritating music hall numbers for my liking ...

The Birds - No Good Without You Baby

The Birds
No Good Without You Baby
Decca F.12257
30p
Filed between The Beatles 'All You Need Is Love' and The Blow Monkeys 'Digging Your Scene'.

Now this is definitely not something I expected to find languishing in a charity shop ... The Birds featured one Mr Ronnie Wood and their brief career in the mid-60s was over-shadowed by the battle for the band name with the rather-better known Byrds. This was one of a handful of singles the band released and is very much of its time - quite resemblant of the Small Faces, which is no bad thing.